The polarity of axon growth in the wings of Drosophila melanogaster

Developmental Biology
J PalkaR L Ellison

Abstract

We have analyzed the growth of axons in the wings of the mutants Hairy wing and hairy of Drosophila melanogaster. These mutants produce many supernumerary bristle organs and sensilla campaniformia, whose axons grow between the two wing epithelia and can be visualized in both pupal and adult stages. The sensory axons of wild-type animals follow two paths in the wing, within longitudinal veins L1 and L3, and always grow with a distal to proximal polarity. In the mutants, all axons following these two paths likewise grow with correct polarity. Axons elsewhere in the wing, however, are found to grow in many different directions, including from proximal to distal and hence directly away from the central nervous system. A variety of patterns of axon growth and fasciculation are seen in different individuals. Only if the supernumerary axons encounter the two normal paths do they reliably grow toward the base of the wing. We conclude that these two paths provide polarity information for axon growth, information which is either not used or not available elsewhere in the wing in spite of the obvious morphological polarization of every epithelial cell. The time course of neural differentiation suggests that the normal sensory cells of mut...Continue Reading

Citations

Apr 1, 1985·Developmental Biology·S S Blair, J Palka
Jul 1, 1987·Developmental Biology·E KnustJ A Campos-Ortega
Feb 1, 1992·Current Opinion in Neurobiology·J PalkaM A Murray
Jun 25, 2014·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Lukas J NeukommMarc R Freeman
Jul 1, 1984·Wilhelm Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology·Hilary Anderson
Apr 16, 1998·Genetics·A L HolmesJ S Heilig

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